Create A Brushed Metal Texture

The second texture up for Vectips Texture Week is brushed metal. Like the previous Water Texture Tutorial, this brushed metal technique also utilizes Illustrator’s Effects. Again this tutorial is pretty simplistic when you break it down, and easy to replicate numerous times. You can use the brushed metal texture in almost anything, but I find myself using it in icons, logos, and interfaces quite a bit.

Notes

This tutorial was created with Illustrator CS3.

Keyboard shortcuts are displayed in orange. ⌘ is displayed for the Command key (mac), with the Ctrl key being the Windows equivalent (not displayed).

Rectangle

Create a 5 inch by 5 inch rectangle with the Rectangle Tool (m). An easy way to draw an exact rectangle is to click on the artboard with the Rectangle Tool (m) to bring up the Rectangle dialog to enter dimensions.

Gradient

Next comes the gradient. Create a Linear Gradient (>) from the Gradient Panel and take off the stroke. Adjust the gradient with the Gradient Tool (g) by clicking and dragging from the top of the rectangle to the bottom. In the Gradient Panel grab the left swatch and drag it to the middle of the Gradient Slider. Next, select the black swatch on the Gradient Slider. If you look in the Color Panel, you will see it is now black. Click on the large black thumbnail and drag it into the Gradient Panel on the left side of the Gradient Slider. If you did it correctly, you should have a black swatch on the left, a white swatch in the middle, and another black swatch on the right in the Gradient Slider. Select the first black swatch and change it to a 60% black, select the white swatch and change it to a 30% black, and change the last black swatch to a 60% black.

Next Copy (⌘c) the rectangle and Paste In Front (⌘f). With the copied rectangle selected, change the dimensions in the Transform Panel to .5 inches wide and fill the rectangle with a 40% black.

Trace and Expand

With the texture selected go Object > Expand Appearance. With the new image selected, the Control Panel defaults to the Live Trace options. Click the arrow beside the Live Trace Button and select Tracing Options. Or you can go Object > Live Trace > Tracing Options. You don’t have to change all the options, just the ones below.

Mode: Black and White

Path Fitting: 1px

Minimum Area: 1px

Corner Angle: 1

Ignore White: Check this box

I like to save a preset in the Tracing Options. It makes it easy to recall these setting. If you have read previous tutorials, you will see I use these setting all the time for tracing. Next, press the Expand button on your tool bar.

Transform Texture

With the texture selected, change the width to 5 inches from the Transform Panel.

Color Texture

With the texture selected, create a Linear Gradient (>) from the Gradient Panel and take off the stroke. Illustrator will remember the last gradient used, so you should have the same gradient fill from the first rectangle. If not, repeat the steps for the gradient from the first rectangle or use the Eyedropper Tool (i)and sample the first rectangle. Once the texture is the same gradient, select the first 60% black and change it to a 70% black, then change the 30% black to 35% black, and then change the last 60% black to a 70% black. With the Gradient Tool (g) click and drag from the top of the texture to the bottom to adjust the gradient. Done!

Experiment

This brushed metal texture is great to incorporate into logos, icons, interfaces, and much more. Look below for some examples

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Hi, I’m new to Illustrator and I love your tutorials. I’m able to create the texture perfectly, but I’m not able to modify it or apply it to new shapes of any kind. Maybe I’m just being dumb, but could you please explain how to do this? If I change the shape of the rectangle, the brush strokes don’t change with it, and I can’t change the shape of brush strokes in any way.

Wow that was unusual. I just wrote an very long comment but after
I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing
all that over again. Regardless, just wanted to say
wonderful blog!

Hey, I kinda need some help, I’m using Illustrator CS4 and I got some kind of noise. I did the brush but when I apply some white lines appear, they don’t really exist on the file, if I export to PDF or JPEG it is still there, altho its stuck in a region of the archive and I can get away of it just by placing my object somewhere else, I wonder if you have any idea of what is going on, I’m linking some screenshots so you can have a better idea of what is going on

Is there a way to make a Graphic Style with this texture? Using what I learned in the tutorials about letterpress and metallic text, for example, I tried to create everything in the same Appearance. However, when I Expand Appearance on the rectangle that has the Graphic Pen style added to it, the whole thing, well, goes to hell 😀

Now, I’m a n00b to the Appearance panel, so perhaps I’m doing it wrong. Also, I hope I didn’t collapse the blogosphere by referencing future tutorials!

I know this tutorial’s been out for a while, but I found the same issue some have put up about the effect not looking the same. It’s during Effect > Sketch > Graphic Pen.

I actually had to play around and found that the numbers are turned around. For me, Stroke Length = 15 and Light/Dark Balance = 5 did not work. What I had to do was Stroke Length = 5 and Light/Dark Balance = 15 and I got the final results like the example you showed.

Just thought I’d put it out there and see if it works for those who’s having the issue I did. I’m using CS3.

I’m a novice at using illustrator, but I am guessing that you forgot to mention that before you change the effect to graphic pen, you must make sure that there is no gradient in the object. I got it wrong the 1st time, then I changed the gradient to just black and it worked in the end.

Thanks man, i subscibed, and that is the first time! Your tutorial is very helpfull.
to bad that when you try to help these people that ask u a question u get nothing in reply. anyways, keep up the good work!

I got to the last part, and it looks exactly like it should, all blue. But when I finally try to select the gradient tool, and click and drag in the form, with the rectangle selected, nothing happens! I hit Enter, and still nothing.

I tried to follow this tut and mine looked pretty horrible. The problem is that when I set the graphic pen as instructed, the distance between the horizontal lines is too big and the lines themselves are too thick in places. This means that when I expand and trace, I end up with a much more coarse effect. I cannot find a way of making the graphic look anything like yours. Mine is more “pitted / scratched” and its not very pretty 🙁 I’m using CS3 and have all the options mentioned in the tut. Its just not working quite right.

hello
I try to make your tuto – > this in CS3?, me is I have CS2
an i have two remarks/questions
1) when I expand appearance in the tracing options I don’t have ” ignore white” – > as I make break up and then expand i have white framework tou around and as, I have want to change the size from 0,5 to 5 I, it is smaller than the gradient … I do not know if I am clear
2) in the tracing option , image PPi i have 72 ppi in stade of 300 ..;

What version of Illustrator are you working on? Maybe if you try to change the Document Color Mode to RGB. Sometimes that helps with CS2. Just go File > Document Color Mode > RGB. Let me know if that helps.

Hi all, Im stuck @ “Effect > Sketch > Graphic Pen” part. I’m unable to select the option no matter what i did. I tried rasterizing, toggling the gradient/colors, etc, but to no avail. It seems most of the effects are not selectable.